Romeo and Juliet - Study Questions (adapted from the guide by Trevor Kew)
Act 1
Explain the purpose of the Prologue. What ideas and themes are introduced there?
Scenes 1 and 2
Identify all the major conflicts established in the first scene.
How does Sampson provoke the Montagues' servants?
Take apart the speech made by the Prince at the end of Scene 1. What does he say is the history of the feud? What will be the consequences of future feuds? Explain the foreshadowing here.
Describe the state of mind of Romeo in Scene 2. Why does he go to the party at Capulet's house?
When Romeo makes his speech about love, he uses a series of oxymorons to present the theme of love coexisting with hate or death. Choose any three from the passage (beginning with “O brawling love…”); explain how, although the concepts of love and hate do not naturally go together but represent opposites, Romeo's use of these images intensifies his descriptions of love.
Explain the operation of fate and how it has worked in Scenes 1 and 2 to help bring the lovers together.
Act I Scenes 3-5
The Nurse has been more of a mother to Juliet than her birth mother. Pick out three specific examples that reveal this, explaining how the example reveals the Nurse as the one with a more just claim as mother.
Who is Susan the Nurse mentions?
When is Juliet's birthday and what metaphorical significance may it have in view of her later fate?
Look at Juliet's response to the Nurse and her mother. Identify how she feels about each, making sure what clues gave away the tone of your feelings.
Describe the character/personality of Mercutio and what appears to be both his goal in life and his function in the play.
List five religious images used in the meeting scene of Romeo and Juliet; explain the effect of the use of these images and what it tells you about the love between the two.
Pay attention to the mixed use of “you” and “thou” in the conversation between Romeo and Juliet. When do they use these pronouns and in what contexts?
Act 2, Scenes 1-2
In what ways are the lovers isolated from the support of their families?
Romeo's soliloquy conveys an idealized quality of love; explain in what ways he is being idealistic.
Why does Juliet ask Romeo not to swear by the moon?
The two lovers meet, declare their love, exchange vows of love, and plan to be married all in a matter of hours. They repeatedly demonstrate that they prefer death to separation. What in their environment and in their specific lives pushes them towards this impetuosity?
Elizabethans were fascinated with potions and poisons and the Friar's soliloquy enthralled them; paraphrase his soliloquy, noting that he is speaking about the dichotomy of nature and man.
He cautions Romeo, saying “Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast.” Then he violates his own admonition. How?
The Nurse becomes an accomplice of the Friar by advancing the plot; what does she do and say that does this?
How responsible do you think she is at this point for the ultimate tragedy? Should she have known better or counselled differently? What is her function both in the household and to Juliet? What does she owe her employers; what about Juliet?
Act 2, Scenes 5-6
The scene between the Nurse and Juliet further develops their relationship. Describe this relationship, focusing on what you see in the opening scene here.
How is this whole scenario between Romeo and Juliet a violation of the restrictions of the era? Look at both the courtship and the marriage; consider Juliet's secondary courtship, the one by Paris.
What similar character traits do you see revealed in Juliet that are echoed in Romeo?
What does the Friar hope for when he violates the custom to marry the two?
How does the marriage intensify the conflict between Tybalt and Romeo?
Act 3, Scenes 1-2
List all the characters who, knowingly or unknowingly, have aided in the rapidly approaching destruction of the lovers. Make sure you also mention in what way they aided and abetted the tragedy. Think about character flaws as well as simple action.
Shakespeare has created three distinct personalities in the characters of Tybalt, Mercutio, and Benvolio. List each, a few of their character traits, and their relationships with others in the play. In what way are their names aptronyms, i.e. they describe their characters?
The wounded Mercutio cries famously “A plague o' both your houses!”. What does he mean by these words?
Why doesn't the Prince carry out his own threat and “shed blood for blood,” putting Romeo to death?
How does this further the ultimate tragedy?
What is so ironic about the death of Mercutio and Romeo's involvement in it?
Romeo feels he has failed Mercutio, allowing his marriage to make him effeminate. He then replaces his effeminate values of love with the masculine values of honor and revenge. Explain what this means and how it is revealed through the action and what is going through Romeo's mind.
As Juliet waits for Romeo to come to her, she makes many allusions (references to other works of literature such as mythology or history). Pick out the major one and explain the reference and the link to the particular moment.
Act 3, Scenes 3-4
In what way is Romeo's attempted suicide another example of his impulsiveness?
How does the Nurse react to the news of death and banishment?
How does the Friar react to the same news?
Do you think Friar Lawrence is feeling guilty or at all responsible for what has happened?
How is Juliet's father's dialogue between him and Paris an expression of patriarchal values of that society?
List one example of dramatic irony in this scene (where the audience knows something the characters do not) and explain why it is ironic.
Act 3, Scene 5
Describe the role of the Nurse in Juliet's life thus far and how it changes in this scene.
How does this change in their relationship allow Juliet to change as a woman?
How has the relationship between Juliet and her parents changed from Act I when her mother broached the subject of marriage to Paris?
Have the parents changed in their relationship to Juliet?
In what ways does Juliet seem more mature than when we first met her?
Act 4, Scenes 1-3
Explain three of the forces that oppose the protagonists, bringing the ultimate end closer.
Explain what Juliet is feeling when she hears the Nurse's advice on how to resolve her dilemma.
What does her placing the dagger beside herself as she drinks the potion signify?rj5
Scene 2 contrasts dramatically with the preceding one. What is the mood of each scene; how and why are they different? What is so ironic about this scene and its mood?
Looking over her soliloquy before she takes the potion, what gives Juliet the strength to go ahead and drink it?
Friar Laurence is neither a Montague or a Capulet, but his decisions still have profound effects. Do you think the Friar is a good or bad character? Explain your opinion and back it up with evidence (4.1, 5.2, 5.3)
Act 4 Scenes 4-5
Look carefully at the reaction of her parents to the “death” of Juliet. Both Capulets' flaws centre on their egos. Explain the flaws of both and what they assume about themselves.
Do they really love Juliet? How do you know this?
Name and explain two examples of dramatic irony in these two scenes.
Explain the ironic imagery of Juliet as the bride of death, beginning with the lines, “The night before thy wedding day/Hath death lain with thy wife.”
Act 5, Scenes 1-2
List all the events in these scenes that involve chance, circumstance, or coincidence.
Describe Romeo's dream. Why is it significant?
Who is Balthasar and what news does he bring Romeo?
How have dreams and premonitions intensified the work of fate?
Think about the consequences to Europe of the plague. Now, why is it ironic that the fear of death by the plague kept Friar John from delivering the letter?
Why does Romeo call the poison a “cordial potion”?
Act 5, Scene 3
Why did Paris come to the churchyard and what does he suspect Romeo of trying to do?
Again, list all of the events of this scene that can be attributed to chance, circumstance, or coincidence.
What is so ironic about Friar Lawrence's speech to Juliet when she wakes up and he wants to take her to a “sisterhood of holy nuns”?
Who is suspected the most of murder and why?
What happened to Romeo's mother?
What is ironic about the scene where the families honor the lovers' deaths?
How is their society guilty of breeding the circumstances of the tragedy that unfolded?
What does the Prince mean when he says, “That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.”?
Lady Capulet says “this sight of death is as a bell/That warns my old age to a sepulchre”. Basing on what she said in Act 1, how old may she be?